view from Marseille train station
flowers in Marseille
entrance to Marseille harbor
Marseille beach
awesome candy store in Marseille
moss fountain in Aix-En-Provence
windy street in Aix
view from our room at Hotel Du Globe in Aix
morning light in Aix
Tara sneaking a peek at Cezanne's house
the most we could see of Cezanne's porch
January 19th and 20th, 2009
We completely improvised our trip to Marseille and Aix-En-Provence. We wanted to see the Mediterranean coast, so we went to Marseille in search of it. The town was not what we expected. To start with, it was more of a city than a town. The security guard who helped us find the lockers in the train station told us to beware of thieves in the streets. Walking in the direction of the port was definitely a bit sketchy. One person later called it “Little North Africa.” One man approached us wanting to take our camera to take pictures of us (and perhaps keep it for himself) but we played dumb. The place was definitely more “real” than any other place we’d seen yet in France. We did wander into an awesome candy store though and eventually found a tourist office where the man helping us said that Tara looks like the French President’s wife, the model Carla Bruni. Afterwards, we stumbled into a cute little area with an Indian restaurant where we had a vegan lunch. Afterwards, we walked up to a vantage point and saw the sea. It didn’t look far to walk to, so we pressed on and finally found the beach. Sadly, it was disappointing. The place was not at all what it looked like in pictures and the sky was grey and the sidewalk was smelly. A bit defeated, we made our way back to the train station and hopped a train to Aix-En-Provence. On the way to Aix we saw two hills full of shacks where people lived. While we were greatly disappointed in spending our precious time in Marseille, we decided it wasn’t a waste. We got to see the kinds of things generally left out of tourist books and they too are part of France. It gave us perspective.
Aix-En-Provence was much more impressive. It had wide tree lined streets like in Paris but still held a small town atmosphere. There were shops everywhere lining the smaller sidestreets featuring good design and high end products. We found a juice bar and passed creperies. I could happily spend a year living there. Tara and I wandered around and shopped until the stores closed at 7. Then we met back at the hotel and went back out for a great glass of wine and a good conversation. It is one of my favorite memories on our trip thus far.
The next morning we walked to Cezanne’s house up the hill from our hotel. We did get there and although the tourist attraction wasn’t open yet for us to see his studio, we did see the general area of where he lived and painted. As a special treat for Tara, the sun was actually out too with clear skies for the first time on our entire trip. Mission accomplished. We caught our train and headed back to Paris.
